U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,086,928 and 4,444,212 illustrate coin sorters which employ annular sorting heads positioned over and adjacent to a rotating resilient disc, and coins are introduced through a central opening in a sorting head. The undersides of the sorting heads of these patents are configured to effect a single layer-single file of coins utilizing a ramp, U.S. Pat. No. 4,086,928 utilizing the ramp for capturing coins so aligned for sorting and freeing others and directing them inward for recycling. U.S. Pat. No. 4,444,212 employs, in addition, a secondary recess to assure that coins not in a single layer and single file are separated. Following the ramp and return recess, or recesses, a single file-single layer of coins are rotated at a discrete and constant radial position, and coins of different diameter are then sorted as a function of the unique position of their inner edge. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,086,928, sorting and dispensing are accomplished by pressing the inner edge of a particular coin into the resilient surface at a discrete peripheral location by a plow device and for enabling the outer edge to freely rise and be hurled over a peripheral barrier. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,096,280, the coins are held with their outer edge indexed at a fixed radial position by pressing them into a rotating resilient surface and ejecting different size coins by slots, the slots being positioned about the periphery of the device and are varied as to their radial location. In both instances, a constant outer radial position is used as a reference position for coins, and sorting and dispensing occur as a united function at a discrete position around a circular periphery.
Pertinently, U.S. Pat. No. 4,607,649 discloses another device having an annular head positioned over a resilient rotating disc. It, too, employs a ramp and return recess for basically creating a single layer-single file of coins. In addition, it employs a secondary means of picking off double layered coins, this being in the form of a secondary recess which is somewhat similar to the approach employed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,444,212. Significantly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,607,649 employs an opposite edge referencing system wherein the inner edges of coins are referenced. This is accomplished by an outwardly spiralling, outwardly facing shoulder against which captured coins are urged by the rotating disc to move outwardly to a peripheral region. Then, sorting occurs along an outwardly facing shoulder which has only a slight spiral and extends substantially around the periphery of the sorter. Sorting is effected by plow devices somewhat akin to those employed in the device of U.S. Pat. No. 4,086,928, the difference being that, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,086,928, the inner edges of coins are pressed downward, and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,607,649, the outer edges are pressed downward. Sorting and dispensing are effected in the device of the latter patent by the inner edge of coins being pivoted upward into a dispensing slot, somewhat like employed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,444,212, which guides an effected coin outward. This system requires that sets of the combination of a plow and a dispensing slot be positioned around the periphery, that it be a circular or spiral periphery and of a substantial size in order to accommodate a significant number of different diameter coins. In this respect, it is like the systems of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,086,928 and 4,444,212.
As to the general technique of positioning captured coins against an outer facing edge, the common applicant in this case, and in the first two references cited, first employed this technique in coin exit chutes for a sorter generally of the type illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,444,212 and which was offered for sale at least as early as 1979 and used this technique as a preprocessing arrangement in a coin handling device which functioned to select only one size coin, and thus was not a sorter, in early 1982 and which was offered for sale no later than October of 1982.
One problem with the sorters of the prior art is that their sorting surfaces consists of quite complex lands and recesses, which result in quite high maching costs. Further, insofar as is known by the applicants, none of the prior devices provide precise accuracy in supplying a desired number of coins of a given denomination into a denominational container without some overrun into that container. Still further, and as noted above, the prior sorters integrate the sorting and dispensing functions around the periphery of a circular device, and this requires substantial space.
Accordingly, it is the object of this invention to provide a coin sorter having a sorting head which is greatly simplified and one wherein precise control is effected over delivery of a selected number of coins of a given denomination. Further, it is the object of this invention to provide a sorter which does not integrate the sorting and dispensing function for a given denomination, but instead separates these functions, enabling a significant decrease in the size of a sorter.